Please enjoy this informative piece by Philadelphia-based writer and mental health therapist Essence Cohen. I personally learned a lot from this article and I’m sure you will, too. Be sure to show Essence some Triple B love in the comments!

There are so many exciting activities surrounding your wedding day that you can lose focus of the importance of building the foundation for your actual marriage. The new experiences and unchartered waters you and your future spouse will explore will enhance your relationship but also test your commitment. Being prepared for these moments are actually more important than cake tasting, gown shopping and the bachelorette party. A pre-marital therapist or counselor is an excellent investment for you and your fiancé to help you both iron out the kinks that you are bound encounter when you make a vow to be with one another “for better or for worse”. Outlined below are five efficient ways and reasons to seek pre-marital counseling before your wedding day!

5) Learn Where Your Partner Stands. Determine what your partner’s thoughts are on premarital counseling before you begin calling around and possibly prematurely setting up an appointment. Counselors as resources to help us through many situations and it is important that you present this to your significant other so that they can begin to understand the benefits, and hopefully it will counteract any misnomers they may have about therapy.

4) Shop around. Just because you have an initial session with one counselor does not mean you have to commit to this person for the duration of your sessions. You and your partner should find someone who you feel can understand you and someone who you can relate to. Whether it be a particular gender, ethnicity or religious affiliation, shopping around until you find someone you two are comfortable with is one of the most efficient ways to find a pre-marital therapist/counselor. P.S. shopping around is great-as long as you two don’t mind filling out the initial assessment paperwork multiple times!

3) Spirituality and Religion. For most, marriage has both a spiritual and religious significance and history. When you consider this, it could be beneficial to seek a religious professional for marriage counseling as they are likely well versed in the purpose and foundation of marriage as you and your future spouse view it. If you are heavily connected to your higher being then this is perhaps the most favorable route for you to go…unless you are concerned about…

2) Anonymity. You may be reluctant to share the most pressing details of your relationship with someone who knows you two as a couple (i.e. your pastor). Being able to confide in someone who does not know either of you as a couple can offer a sense of relief because it allows to you release the feeling of someone “being in your business”! The truth of the matter is that both religious professionals and counselors are resources designed to help — and not judge — you.

1) Investing in your future. Counseling can be helpful at any stage of a relationship, however just like in the medical field; you have better outcomes when you focus on prevention and not just treatment. You are better equipped to deal with tough issues in your relationship when you have prepared for it verses when you are trying to figure out how to address it while it you are seeking counseling for the first time.

Triple B Sidebar: Here are two highly regarded pre-marriage counseling resources to consider. Don’t forget to mention Black Bridal Bliss sent you should you reach out to these professionals. Mary Pender Greene and Metropolitan Marriage & Family Therapy.

The aftermath of Hurricane Sandy will affect businesses for weeks, if not months. And for small businesses, the backbone of New York City’s economy, a blow from a disaster like Sandy can have a huge impact. Seth Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, said on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show that businesses of five employees or less account for 60 percent of all businesses, and companies with under 100 employees account for 98 percent of all businesses.

Has your business suffered a loss due to Sandy? Here are a some helpful resources:
– The New York City Economic Development Corporation is coordinating resources for businesses that have been affected by the storm, including low interest loans.
– NYC.gov has a page dedicated to Hurricane Sandy Business Recovery Information
– The state of NJ is offering assistance for self-employed in affected counties.
– The Federal Emergency Management Agency has a page dedicated to Hurricane Sandy and resources available.

We wanted to find out how small business owners are coping in the days after Sandy. So The Story Exchange asked small business owners in the metropolitan area how their businesses are faring. Here are some stories women told us.

Mary Pender Greene, LCSW-R, CGP, Owner MPG Consulting

I am a psychotherapist with a clinical supervision and consulting practice in midtown Manhattan. For the past several days since Hurricane Sandy, I have not been able to travel to my office to meet with clients… Many of my clients are already in crisis (anxiety, depression, grief), so the disruption and chaos caused by Sandy is felt even more acutely. Not being able to come to my office to talk about these feeling and issues has caused profound angst and fear. I have been able to lessen the upset by finding creative solutions that allowed me to be present for them during this difficult time. I have been texting, emailing and Skyping with them when electronic power allows. These methods have helped me to maintain a connection with my clients and have lessened their feelings of isolation and vulnerability. It is still very difficult, if not impossible, to get in and out of the city. I am concerned for the patients who need to travel into NYC for psychiatric evaluations. I am also concerned for those who are taking anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medications who need their prescriptions filled at local pharmacies that have been impacted by the storm. A traumatic event may bring up past trauma experiences for stable clients and sometimes cause them to become destabilized. The goal is to prevent extended isolation.

Maria Vizzi, Owner, Indoor Environmental Solutions, Inc., Bronx, NYC

The impact [on my business, dryer ventilation cleaning, air duct cleaning and sanitizing] has been felt in several ways. Our technicians have been impacted personally on various levels and some of them were unable to work and our office staff who uses public transportation were unable to come to the office. Our clients, individuals and resident and property managers of co-ops, condos and townhouse communities in the tri-state area were impacted and they couldn’t be serviced.

Another client, the New York City Fire Department and EMS, for which we clean the air ducts and dryers, were rightfully prioritizing emergency response, and all our work for them has been stalled for the moment. The difficulty in getting gas for our fleet has been a problem but we are driving as far as Connecticut to gas up our vans one by one. We are coping by being available and by accommodating everyone’s situation as best we can… Our staff has been communicating with our clients, calling and emailing to re-schedule appointments. Our concerns are being empathetic to the current situation on all fronts.

Elise Ainsworth, Owner Scotch Plains Montessori, Scotch Plains, NJ

We are a childcare provider caring for children ages 1 to 7. My business has been affected tremendously. Due to the hurricane, we currently have no power in the area and also at the school location, so we have been forced to close the school all week. We have parents that still have to go to work and are forced to find childcare elsewhere. We are not state or goverment funded so we make our money from the parents. The damages that we have suffered is consider an act of god and my insurance company will not cover for natural disasters and income lost due to the hurricane.

Barbara Bruce-Ross, Owner, B.Witching Bath Co., Ridgewood & Hawthorne NJ

We have two company-owned retail stores and sell our products over the internet and to 700 other retailers nationwide. Our corporate building was without power for a couple days, but today we were back online and all our employees reported for work. We spent the day shipping orders and making upgrades to our break room, kitchen area and corporate bathroom that includes a shower. Many of our employee family’s are without power, heat and hot water. Although we are a small business, we thought it would be beneficial to get our shower up and running to help provide our familes with a way to get cleaned up, get warm food in their belly and a provide place for children to watch videos. With a quick run to the local Home Depot, we were able to get the supplies we needed to make some quick upgrades and make everyone is a little more comfortable.

Liz Elting, Co-founder, TransPerfect, Manhattan

Headquartered in NYC, my team and I are among the companies who have spent numbers of business hours without power or access to our main headquarters. We are a language services and technology solutions company with offices all over the world, serving clients on a global basis, so we needed to ensure continuity of service even in the face of an unprecedented disaster. Fortunately, we’ve been able to accomplish this goal by providing 24-hour support to our New York headquarters by re-routing work to our west coast offices and to western Europe. On a personal level, our employees are out in the community doing what they can to help their neighbors. One longtime employee has told me she had over 25 people come to her home on the edge of the power outage grid in lower Manhattan. Her power stayed on through the storm, and she has been providing showers, cell phone charging, computer charging and meals to people who she meets in the street and some who have knocked on her door.